


Truth is a Whisper

by thecat_13145



Series: Truth be told [2]
Category: Numb3rs
Genre: Ambiguous Relationships, Character Death, Implied/Referenced Suicide, POV Outsider, POV Third Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-24
Updated: 2015-04-24
Packaged: 2018-03-25 14:10:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3813448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thecat_13145/pseuds/thecat_13145
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Just tell the truth.”<br/>If only it was that easy</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Truth is a whisper

**Author's Note:**

> This started life as a series of drabbles for Numb3rs 100. It drew and I dusted it off.  
> Hope people like it.

“Just tell us what happened.” She’s heard that phrase about fifty times in the last hour and never realised till now how irritating it is.

First it was the motorcyclist who heard the shot. Then police officers, their back up arriving too late, asking her over the wail of the siren. Then it was the doctors at the hospital as they cut off the bullet proof vest and her shirt underneath it.

Now it’s the agents. The black guy and the blond guy, like a pair of chess pieces, taking her statement.

“Just tell the truth.”

If only it was that easy

*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/

“FBI! FREEZE!”

Her hair was slipping out of it’s ponytail, sticky after five hours on the road. Adrenaline was pounding though her body, as she jumped from the truck, knowing Coop would bring it around, blocking the other exit to the alley.

She’d been Coop’s partner for just over a year now, making her his second longest running partner. They’re East of Eden, somewhere, she’s lost track they’ve covered so much ground in the last few days. The perp catches her eye and runs down the alley, just like they planned, except there’s some trashcans thrown in her path, and she’s struggling to regain her balance when she hears the shot. 

She barely has time to react when the second shot slams into her.

*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/

His name is Don. He tells her that after five minutes of silence, as though she didn’t recognise him from the picture Coop kept beneath the visor. He was the one who caught Peppler the first time he escape, his first mission when he was Coop’s partner. She knows that too.

She wonders if that’s why it happened this way.

“I told your agents what happened. Peppler saw the truck and shot Coop. He then turned and shot at me. Coop shot Peppler to save me.”

He sighs.

“The problem is that’s not what the math says.”

“Maybe you’re just doing the wrong math.”

*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*

The sky in the alley is tiny. A patch of blue far away. 

Her shoulder’s throbbing, as she tries to get up, tries to make sense of what happened.

She can see Peppler lying on the ground, lying very still. Coop is standing above him, his gun in his hand. 

She doesn’t understand why he’s still there, why he hasn’t come over to help her. It had to be an accident. Coop wouldn’t shoot her.

The blue eyes turn towards her and for the first time since she’s known him they look...happy.

Slowly Coop smiles and raise the gun.

“No!”

Bang.


	2. A Lie is a scream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The lie is out of her mouth before she can stop it.

The lie is out of her mouth before she can stop it.

“I jumped out of the truck, while Coop brought it around to corner Pepler. Neither of us realised he was armed. The first I heard was a shot. Coop.” She hasn’t stopped shaking since it happened, but now it’s a hundred times worse. “Then he shot me.”

“Denis Pepler shot you and Agent William Cooper?” The Black agent is asking the question, and she’s answering it even though it doesn’t feel like it.

“Yes.” She swallows, forcing back the tears. “And Coop shot him to protect me.”

/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*

“Did Agent Cooper have gun?”

“Yes, he had mine. I was using my back up piece.”

“Why?”

“Because his was out of bullets. I told him to stop around the offices before he went after Pepler, but he said the trail would be cold by then, and he’d stop around that evening if we hadn’t found him.” She glanced from Agent to Agent. “Personally, I think he just wanted to see his old partner that evening.”

They’re both silent and she knows her lies are believed.

/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/

The average speed of a bullet was 400 feet per second. The alley is 50 foot long. The boxes fell at an average angle of 47 degrees. 

Pepler had been in the marines. His marksman ship was noted as excellent. His crimes had equally being marked with tight shots. Ian Edgerton had expressed admiration for him. The agents were good, but average good.

Charlie ran his fingers through his hair, chalk prematurely greying the curls. It didn’t matter how you arranged the numbers, the math didn’t add up.

There were too many guns, too few injuries and not enough answers

/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*

When was the first time she knew? 

When she pulled down the visor to get some documents and found the picture? When she saw Coop eyeing a guy with dark hair and a winning ass? When it felt like every second sentence out of Coop’s mouth was “Me and Don”?

Maybe it was when Margret Harrison warned her to keep an eye on Coop, her own eyes resting sadly on the other man, like a relative who knows how serious an illness is in spite of the doctor’s reassurances

It felt like she’d always known.

*****/*/**/*  
If you repeat a lie often enough it becomes truth. Many have escaped the death penalty because they stuck to their stories in spite of the evidence

Coop was a good partner, and made sure she couldn’t be blamed. Now it’s her turn to do the same. To protect his reputation, and the man he loved. She didn’t know either of them well, but she knows it’s what he would have wanted.

“Pepler shot Coop, then turned and shot me. Coop shot Pepler to protect me. That’s what happened, I was there.” She glared at him. “And no amount of math can change that.”


End file.
